Editorial

The Bottom Line: August 17, 2018: Mark Wahlberg Brings CIA Black Ops Action to Cineplexes

Mark Wahlberg Mile 22

The Bottom Line August 17, 2018

Quick Takes

The Meg was the popcorn film that audiences craved last weekend. The Meg was the Number One at the box office last weekend, improbably defeating Mission: Impossible – Fallout in its third week of release.

Box Office Top Five

The Meg premiered in the Number One spot at the box office last weekend with $44.5 Million. That is a better opening than Pacific Rim: Uprising, Rampage, and Ready Player One. The Meg defied all expectations and landed at the top of the box office with a strong opening. Mission: Impossible – Fallout was Second with $20 Million for $161.9 Million so far. World-wide, Mission: Impossible – Fallout has made $437.5 Million. Christopher Robin was Third with $12.4 Million at the box office this weekend. Slender Man premiered in Fourth Place with $11.3 Million at the box office this weekend. BlacKkKlansman premiered in Fifth Place with $10.7 Million at the box office this weekend.

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A Closer Look at Some of this Week’s Films

Mile 22 (R) 95 mins.

If it were not for the director and the lead actors in this movie, I would have said that Mile 22 looks like a generic action film. It seems as though it hits all the check boxes: high-end violence, street battles, close combat battles, gore, smart choreography, and oodles of blood. Because the aforementioned variables are in place, Mile 22 will do moderately well at the box office its first few weeks before it descends out of the Top Five. The plot to Mile 22 is too thin to get good word-of-mouth going or to get people coming back for additional screenings.

Crazy Rich Asians (PG-13) 120 mins.

Crazy Rich Asians has a great trailer, so good in fact that it makes the film look like a sleeper hit, but the film has been getting mixed reviews. I like that this film is bringing an underrepresented segment of society to American audiences, and not as low or middle income but affluent. That notwithstanding, sometimes the advertisement is better than the product that it is advertising.

Alpha (PG-13) 96 mins.

Loved the trailers for this film. Very entertaining. Alpha looks like popcorn of a different order (like the first Transformers film e.g. decent story and spectacle). Beneath like salt and butter topping, there may be little below the surface. Alpha may have been better if its material had been upped to the Rated-R variety.

The Bottom Line

The top three films this weekend will be action films. The Meg will win this weekend for the second weekend in a row. A lot of people that stayed away from The Meg will become curious because of The Meg‘s surprising weekend last weekend. Mile 22 will be Second this weekend. Mission: Impossible – Fallout will be Third at the box office this weekend. Crazy Rich Asians will be Fourth at the box office. Christopher Robin will be Fifth this weekend at the box office.

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Movies To Look Forward To:

Operation Finale (Aug. 29), The Predator (Sept. 14), Fahrenheit 11/9 (May 6), Venom (Oct 5).

Leave your thoughts on The Bottom Line August 17, 2018 for the films opening this weekend in movie theaters below in the comments section. Readers seeking more The Bottom Line can visit our The Bottom Line Page. Want up-to-the-minute notification? Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Tumblr, Google+, and Facebook.

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Rollo Tomasi

Rollo Tomasi is a Connecticut-based film critic, TV show critic, news, and editorial writer. He will have a MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University in 2025. Rollo has written over 700 film, TV show, short film, Blu-ray, and 4K-Ultra reviews. His reviews are published in IMDb's External Reviews and in Google News. Previously you could find his work at Empire Movies, Blogcritics, and AltFilmGuide. Now you can find his work at FilmBook.
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